Elizabeth Williams
Ms. Blair
English 4
2 April 2015
What causes serial killers to become what they are: Nature or nurture? There are many speculations of what makes a person do and be the things they are but it is not only nature or nurture it’s a combination of both.
For a long time people have wondered what makes people act the way they do. People especially wonder about the people of the outcast of the society, the killers. People are fascinated of how these people can do the things they do. What makes them tick and why do they do the things they do? A very important man wondered all these things also. His name was Sir Francis Galton. He was a Victorian, geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, inventor of fingerprint identification, …show more content…
(Saul McLeod) And Bandura 's (1977) social learning theory that tells aggression is a learned from the environment someone is placed in through observation and imitation. So looking into to the fringes of society, where many fear to go, inside the minds of four vicious murders, to find an answer to the previous question, what causes serial killers to become what they are: Nature or nurture?
The first killer that I will consider is Jeffery Dahmer. Jeffery was the first child of Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 21, 1960. Lionel Dahmer said that it was a happy time, that life seemed brand new with their new child. Jeffery was a very normal child. “Jeff loved to play and wrestle. He loved to ham it up for the camera. He loved playing with the other kids. He was a very loving little boy”, his father remembers (Lionel Dahmer, bill Harris, youtube.com/a&ejeffdahmerinterview). But something changed when the family moved to Bath, Ohio. His father recalls that he began to become more and more withdrawn, where he used to play with the other children, he would stay all day in the house alone. He stopped being joyful about …show more content…
Ted was born November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Unlike Dahmer, who was born into a happy family, Bundy was born into a life of secrecy. Bundy’s mother Eleanor Cowell was only twenty two and unmarried when she had Ted. To keep it a secret Eleanor took her newborn to her parents in Philadelphia. His grandparents adopted him and raised him to believe that his mother was his sister. According to Davin Hiskey, Bundy found out when his cousin mocked him and showed him his birth certificate. A few years later, 1951, Eleanor moved herself and Ted to Washington and there she married Johnnie Bundy. His morbid personality became prevalent at an early age. According to bio online, he had an unusual interest in macabre and knives. Bio online also says that he was a shy child but incredibly smart, excelling in school. But just like Dahmer he didn’t do so well socially. And as a teenager he again started to show his dark side, he peered into strangers windows and didn’t give a second thought to stealing from anyone. It didn’t take long for him to crack. In college he started dating a wealthy, beautiful young woman from California. He fell so deeply in love with her that when they broke up he wasn’t the only one who was devastated. Her parents would be at the loose of their precious daughter. Unfortunately this girl that seemed to have everything, money, class and influence, it could protect her from becoming the first victim in his spree
Ms. Blair
English 4
2 April 2015
What causes serial killers to become what they are: Nature or nurture? There are many speculations of what makes a person do and be the things they are but it is not only nature or nurture it’s a combination of both.
For a long time people have wondered what makes people act the way they do. People especially wonder about the people of the outcast of the society, the killers. People are fascinated of how these people can do the things they do. What makes them tick and why do they do the things they do? A very important man wondered all these things also. His name was Sir Francis Galton. He was a Victorian, geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, inventor of fingerprint identification, …show more content…
(Saul McLeod) And Bandura 's (1977) social learning theory that tells aggression is a learned from the environment someone is placed in through observation and imitation. So looking into to the fringes of society, where many fear to go, inside the minds of four vicious murders, to find an answer to the previous question, what causes serial killers to become what they are: Nature or nurture?
The first killer that I will consider is Jeffery Dahmer. Jeffery was the first child of Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 21, 1960. Lionel Dahmer said that it was a happy time, that life seemed brand new with their new child. Jeffery was a very normal child. “Jeff loved to play and wrestle. He loved to ham it up for the camera. He loved playing with the other kids. He was a very loving little boy”, his father remembers (Lionel Dahmer, bill Harris, youtube.com/a&ejeffdahmerinterview). But something changed when the family moved to Bath, Ohio. His father recalls that he began to become more and more withdrawn, where he used to play with the other children, he would stay all day in the house alone. He stopped being joyful about …show more content…
Ted was born November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Unlike Dahmer, who was born into a happy family, Bundy was born into a life of secrecy. Bundy’s mother Eleanor Cowell was only twenty two and unmarried when she had Ted. To keep it a secret Eleanor took her newborn to her parents in Philadelphia. His grandparents adopted him and raised him to believe that his mother was his sister. According to Davin Hiskey, Bundy found out when his cousin mocked him and showed him his birth certificate. A few years later, 1951, Eleanor moved herself and Ted to Washington and there she married Johnnie Bundy. His morbid personality became prevalent at an early age. According to bio online, he had an unusual interest in macabre and knives. Bio online also says that he was a shy child but incredibly smart, excelling in school. But just like Dahmer he didn’t do so well socially. And as a teenager he again started to show his dark side, he peered into strangers windows and didn’t give a second thought to stealing from anyone. It didn’t take long for him to crack. In college he started dating a wealthy, beautiful young woman from California. He fell so deeply in love with her that when they broke up he wasn’t the only one who was devastated. Her parents would be at the loose of their precious daughter. Unfortunately this girl that seemed to have everything, money, class and influence, it could protect her from becoming the first victim in his spree